Republicans in the #NeverTrump crowd are riding high after John Kasich's victory in Ohio on Tuesday night — a win that robbed front-runner Donald Trump of delegates and pushed the Republican primary closer to a contested convention that could thwart Trump's eventual nomination.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich laughs as confetti falls after speaking at his presidential primary election rally in Berea, Ohio, on March 15, 2016.

Image: AP Photo/Tony Dejak

But even Republicans who believe Kasich's even-keeled demeanor and more moderate record would make him the party's best pick in November know the Ohio win is just the beginning.

'Mathematically impossible' for Kasich to win outright

As it stands, it is mathematically impossible for Kasich to earn the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright. He is currently a distant third behind Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, with little favorable ground remaining to make up that difference.

"The only place Kasich has proven he can beat Trump is Ohio," said Dave Wasserman, a delegate expert and non-partisan political handicapper with the Cook Political Report. "You might also be able to make the case that Kasich beat Trump in a few very liberal New England towns. But outside of his home state and a few very small cities in New England, where can he win?"

Yet with Sen. Marco Rubio now out of the race, Kasich's team hopes they can gobble up Rubio's base of more pragmatic Republicans in upcoming states such as Pennsylvania and Utah.

But that presents another problem — how to appeal to both those voters as well as conservatives and evangelicals.

"John Kasich frankly’s got three or four times the problems that Marco did on breaking from conservative orthodoxy," said Jason Roe, a California Republican and adviser to Rubio's campaign. "It’s going to be difficult for him to emerge as the alternative, given the shortcomings in the eyes of conservative activists."

Cruz and his surrogates began making that argument Wednesday morning, pleading with Kasich to exit the race and allow Cruz to fight Trump one-on-one.

Here's where the delegate race stands after last night. This is w/o Missouri, where Trump/Clinton lead by 1k votes pic.twitter.com/vKK6f8ATeJ

"John Kasich won his home state, I think sort of a minimum expectation. But, honestly, he has no path," Carly Fiorina, the failed presidential candidate who's thrown her support behind Cruz, said on Fox News Wednesday morning. "As Ted Cruz said last night, there are only two candidates who have a path to the nomination."

A convention hard sell

Should Kasich make it to a possibly contested convention, he will still have a hard sell, several Republicans told Mashable.

"You want to show up at the convention and make the case...that you lose with Trump, and you may want to put your best candidate forward. And by far the strongest candidate is Kasich against Clinton," said Tom Davis, a former Virginia congressman backing Kasich's bid. "But this is not a done deal at this point, and Cruz is going to obviously be a major part of the convention."

It would require a hefty organizational lift on the convention floor, convincing enough delegates not tied to any candidate to back his bid.

Some Republicans say the strong performance by Cruz's campaign in caucus states such as Iowa, Kansas and Maine, which operate similarly to a convention where voters will try to sway other voters, makes the Texas senator the best candidate to try to beat Trump.

"Cruz’s people are already making moves on Rubio’s people, whose delegates will become unbound," said one unaligned Republican strategist on the condition of anonymity. "Cruz will pick up a chunk of those guys out of Iowa. He’ll pick up a chunk of those guys most definitely in Florida. He'll pick up a bunch of those guys in Puerto Rico. I don’t see john Kasich having that ability."

Other Republicans have expressed fear that handing the nomination to a candidate far behind in both delegates and the popular vote would further splinter the party — alienating voters and defying their popular will.

"I am very troubled by reports that some in the Republican Party are exploring ways to subvert the presidential nominating process," Rep. Bradley Byrne, a conservative but unaligned Alabama Republican wrote in a Facebook post on March 11. "Our party's nominee should be selected by the American people, not by party bosses. I have great confidence in the American people, and we should be listening to their voices and their calls for a better, stronger country."

Trump himself predicted "riots" if the nomination is taken from him in a convention scenario.

Kasich expressed confidence that his victory in Ohio would carry him to both the GOP nomination and the presidency as he basked in red-white-and-blue confetti falling from the rafters at his victory rally.

“We’ve got one more trip around Ohio this coming fall,” Kaisich said, “where we will beat Hillary Clinton, and I will become the president of the United States.”

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